Celtics look to improve in NBA Draft

Thursday

Jun 26, 2014 at 12:18 AMJun 26, 2014 at 12:28 AM

After winning only 25 games last season, the Celtics have the chance to add two first-rounders during the NBA Draft on Thursday night as the team tries to head in the right direction with the sixth and 17th picks.

Jim Fenton The Enterprise @JFenton_ent

There was plenty of patience displayed with the Celtics as they took the first step in a rebuilding process this past season.

The long TD Garden sellout streak may have come to an end during the 2013-14 season, but the Celtics still managed to draw an average of 18,107 fans while going just 25-57.

The interest wasn’t quite the same with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Doc Rivers out of the picture, but Celtics’ followers were intrigued by what first-year head coach Brad Stevens had to offer.

The second season of the rebuilding project begins in four months and some progress is going to have to be made this summer in order to prevent fans from starting to lose their patience.

The Celtics have plenty of work to do before they transform from a bad team to a contender once again and the first chance to get better arrives tonight.

With two first-round picks in the NBA Draft (7:30 p.m., TV: ESPN), the Celtics have an opportunity to find some young help for the future.

The team has nine first-round selections between now and 2018 (it will be 10 if the Philadelphia 76ers make the playoffs next season) and getting off to a good start would help immensely.

There is also the possibility the Celtics could pry All-Star forward Kevin Love away from the Minnesota Timberwolves by using the two first-rounders tonight as part of a package, but the chances of pairing him with Rajon Rondo look remote at this point.

And speaking of Rondo, the Celtics might decide to shop him tonight or during the summer rather than signing him to a long-term deal as he approaches free agency in 2015.

It figures to be a busy offseason for the Celtics as they try to head in the right direction and it all gets going tonight. Barring any deals, the Celtics should make the No. 6 pick around 8 p.m., then select at No. 17 about an hour later.

President of basketball operations Danny Ainge, who ended an era on draft night last year by trading Pierce and Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets, has some major decisions to make.

The direction of the franchise depends on what Ainge can do starting with the draft.

If they make the picks tonight, the Celtics could go with forward Aaron Gordon of Arizona or guard Marcus Smart of Oklahoma State at No. 6, players who appear capable of being keepers.

They could also look for a scorer, such at T.J. Warren of North Carolina State, or an energetic athlete like Zach LaVine of UCLA at No. 17.

If they are willing to write off the 2014-15 season and hope for a better situation in the lottery next year, the Celtics could draft injured center Joel Embiid of Kansas (provided he falls to them) and then take Croatia forward Dario Saric, who will spend a couple of years in Turkey before going to the NBA.

Getting Love, who paid a weekend visit to Boston this spring to get a feel for the city, would speed up the rebuilding process.

Putting Love and Rondo together would give the Celtics a one-two punch, clearly not enough to win a title but putting them in a much better spot than they’d be waiting and hoping draft picks pan out.

The Timberwolves have so far resisted what the Celtics have had to offer in a swap for Love.

Rebuilding is never easy as the Celtics found out following the end of the Larry Bird-Kevin McHale-Robert Parish era.

Now, Ainge has a tough task trying to reconstruct a team that has just one player left – Rondo – from the 2008 championship group.

Will they keep using all the draft picks the next few years or shop those assets to make a big splash and speed things up?

“We want to win. We want to be good,’’ said Austin Ainge, the Celtics director of player personnel. “The decision comes when you’re cashing in future assets, if it’s time to push all your chips to the middle of the table or if it’s to be as good as you can without sacrificing the future.

“Those are case-by-case decisions and it depends how good we can get now.’’

Tonight, step one on the long road back will be taken by the Celtics.

Jim Fenton may be reached at jfenton@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFenton_ent.